NCJ Number
84512
Date Published
1978
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Major career criminal programs developed by police, prosecution, and parole policymakers are described, and characteristics of career criminals and implications for policy are summarized.
Abstract
Some police departments are using lists of suspected offenders as a means of targeting arrest efforts, and special surveillance may be used against persons deemed particularly dangerous. The most proactive use of career criminal files involves patrol officers making field stops of designated persons to develop information for use in later investigations. The prosecution focus on career criminals has involved the establishment of a special unit to determine whether defendants meet the criteria for being a career criminal and then making a special effort to win conviction in the case and obtain the most severe sentence possible. Parole departments are also targeting career criminals so their supervision will be particularly close. A Rand study has found that the high-rate offenders are more likely than others to (1) have begun crime prior to age 14, (2) operate in a wide geographic base, (3) be heavily involved with drugs and alcohol, (4) have said that 'high times' and 'excitement' are the most important reasons for their crimes, and (5) be less socially stable (moved more than twice in a year, employed less than half time, and unmarried). The most powerful predictor of high-rate criminality, however, is the extent and seriousness of an offender's juvenile record. Policymakers should consider how young serious offenders might be deterred or incapacitated at the peak of their criminal careers, so as to avoid the relatively ineffectual deterring and incapacitation of career criminals whose age may put them on the downside of their most active criminality.